The Daddy Speech
A/N: *Hides behind the couch in total shame* truth is guys that I don't really have any excuse per say… maybe my fellow writers will understand that writing under severe depression is never the best option… I have written this chapter at least 13 times over never really liking where it ends up… but I owe you a chapter and thanks to some much needed Prozac I am better and I have however been working on my own book, and who knows maybe one day soon you might pick up a copy of it in some bookstore and think 'Hey she really did it.' Here's to hoping you are still with me and actually enjoy this chapter.
Rose's P.O.V
Could I really do this again? Could I really throw my heart out there again?
'Too late to debate that now you dumb ass,' my subconscious shouted at me.
And yes, indeed it was too late. Earlier today I had agreed to… what had I agreed too again?
'Love?' this time when my subconscious spoke it was much softer.
No, not love. He never mentioned love. So where was this love shit coming from?
'Because you want him to love us?' she beamed at me.
"If he finds out I have conversations inside my head, I bet he'll be running for the hills," I laughed at myself.
The buzz of my phone broke me out of my reverie.
'Hey,' read a text from Mia.
"Hey yourself," I texted back.
'Stop overthinking things, just like you said, if they turn out to be jerks we still have each other,' her immediate response made me smile as once again the feeling that I could take on the world came over me.
"You know me too well," I responded and set my phone aside. With thoughts of him I dozed off.
~8~
Dimitri's P.O.V
Winning fight always gave me a great sense of accomplishment. My family always gave me a sense of happiness, and though I am happy to be somewhat moving forward with Rose, I don't necessarily feel accomplished; being with her gave me a feeling of peace, contentment and completeness. It's like she's the missing piece of my puzzle, yes lame, I know but it is what it is.
"Want to share with us the reason for that goofy grin on your ugly face," I was greeted by Christian's annoying voice when I walked into my apartment.
"I have got to change my lock," I mumbled to myself as I turned to close the door.
"Don't be a grouch, you were all happy two seconds ago," Eddie chuckled.
"And in fact I was happy until I found two homeless dudes in my apartment," but I couldn't make it sound mean, these were my friends, my brothers. And all that did was make us laugh.
"Okay, all joke aside, what the fuck happened last night?" Eddie leaned forward resting his elbow on his knees.
"Dude you have fucking ended your career," Christian exploded.
"Why don't you tell me how you really feel Chris," and the serious times was what made us brothers.
"Why Dimka? Because of the fucking gir
"Don't finish that sentence! She is not just to 'fucking girl'," I interrupted his rant.
"Chris!" Eddie issued a warning.
"Please Dimitri explain to me why you practically threw your career down the drain because of a girl who doesn't give two shist about you," I could tell he was fuming but I could also see the genuine concern he had for me.
"You know my past Chris, Rose or not I would have done the same thing," and I really wanted to believe that. When the silence stretched for over a minute I repeated myself. "I would have done it for any other woman."
"Who are you trying to convince Dimka?" Eddie shot both his eyebrows up as a smile tugged on his lips.
"Listen, I don't know how to explain, but I care for her… I really do! And I honestly acted before could think," I explained but I couldn't meet their eyes so instead I found a very interesting spot on the carpet to focus on.
"You are in love," Christian chuckled, his mood lightening.
"Am not," my head shot up as Christian's words sank in.
"I don't know Dimka, but I think Chris has a good point," this only made the smile on Eddie's lips grow.
'Love? Was I in love with Rose? I mean I haven't been in love with anyone before, yes I love my family, those four women are the light of my world and I would lay down my own life for them without a second thought any day… But Rose? Was it possible to love someone on such short time?'
"We'll let you work that out on your own," Eddie said as he dragged Chris out the door with him.
As I watched them leave it was as if more people were coming in. Funny how being alone made my apartment feel crowded. My thoughts were a jumbled mess. Rose was everywhere, my couch, my bed even the spare room now. When I close my eyes her face is tattooed onto my eyelids. Shit I needed some help; digging out my phone I called my sister again.
'I have been stuck in this house all day waiting for you to call,' was how she greeted me.
"Hi Lina," her little rant actually made me smile.
'Don't 'hi Lina me' tell me how it went,' she demanded.
"Could I be in love?" The words spilled out before I could stop them.
'No, anyone else yes, you not possible,' she chuckled
For a second silence reigned, as if the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place my sister scream, 'wait! You're not joking… MAMA,' she screamed for my mom. After they ignored me for about 10 minutes as they talked and laughed between them floating from English to Russian I finally interrupted.
"I'm still here you know," I said hoping they would hear me.
'When can we meet her that?' My mother's voice actually startled me.
"Mama I'm not even sure she wants me like that," admitting my fears to my family was never easy but not as hard as admin it to my friends.
'Nonsense, I'll call you when I have everything ready and when you can pick me up at the airport, bye Dimka I love you,' and before I could get a word out she hung up on me.
~8~
'She is going to give me try!' I went to sleep and woke up with that thought etched in my mind. Why was I so giddy about this? A small part of me wanted to bounce up and down like a little child… but how odd would I look? Something was definitely wrong with me. And since I was already going to hell in a hand basket I took out my phone and did something very out of character.
"Good morning beautiful," and before I could change my mind I hit 'send' and stuck the phone in my back pocket as Eddie, Christian and I left for the gym.
Rose's P.O.V
The soft vibration of my phone actually startled me awake. It took me a while to get my bearing and wipe the sleep out of my eyes, checking my phone I rushed out of bed as I was extremely late for work. Fuck! I had slept the rest of the afternoon, all of the night and way passed my alarm. Fuck!
Running down stairs in light speed I stopped dead on my tracks as the scene before me surprised me.
"Dad?" my heart dropped, he never made house visits without first announcing his visit so something had to be wrong.
"Well good morning to you too Rose," he smiled at me.
"What happened?" though his smile eased my mind I still wasn't sure why he was here.
"Nothing, just wanted to have breakfast with my girls, already excused you from work so no worries," he winked as Mia and Lisa came strolling casually into the kitchen.
"And what excuse did you give?" this had to be good if he managed to excuse all three of us from work.
"Conjunctivitis," he shrugged.
"Really? Okay let me go change," I didn't want to go to work anyway… and these spontaneous outings with daddy were rare and I loved them.
After I was changed it dawned on me that a test message had actually woken me up, unlocking my phone I saw who the message was from and my heart skipped a beat.
'Good morning beautiful,' his message was short and sweet and I couldn't help the squeal that escaped my mouth as I hugged my phone like a stupid love struck teenager.
"Hurry up Rose," Lisa's shout startled me and shaking off a bit of my giddiness I skipped down the steps.
"All this giddiness for seeing me this bright and early?" my dad cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Of course daddy," I partially lied.
"Good answer baby girl," he offered me his arm as we left the house.
Breakfast was a fun little outing and dad took us shopping… only boring part was that he needed to stop in one of his gyms to talk to one of his employees.
"I won't be long girls," he said as he grabbed a manila envelope and exited the car.
Dimitri's P.O.V
She is going to give me a try! That is a definite, and somehow it was a good dose of speed and strength for me… I was invincible. Well not really invincible, but since I had walked through the doors this morning no one here had been able to beat me.
On a regular day basis, we trained as if we were in actual flight but Monday, always tougher… Alberta seems to think that because we have the weekend off that on Mondays we need to train for three days. So usually Monday trainings are always tougher, but I had my Rose fix yesterday and nothing could knock me down.
So far I had taken on Eddie, Chris, Lev, and was so far beating Alberta. As we fought I started to notice the noise in the gym had died down, and there's only one thing that made this gym stop… Ibrahim was here!
"Mr. Mazur, what brings you here today?" I heard Alberta greet him as I unwrapped my hands and sipped from my water bottle.
"I just booked Dimitri's fight, so I came to check on my investment and bring him up to date on everything," he answered with a smile. Alberta returned his smile but the undertone of his voice gave me the chills.
"He's all yours Mr. Mazur," she gave him a slight bow before fixing me with a stare that spoke volumes. He mentioned something about scheduling my fight, most likely the fight Alberta did not think I was ready for.
"Follow me please," he said as he walked by the ring I was in going in the direction of the back office. It wasn't an option.
The door barely clicked closed behind me before he started.
"I would like to tell you a little story about a stupid boy who broke the princess's heart," he motioned for me to sit but he remained standing. "You see there once was a princess called Violet; she was the fairest of the maidens in town. This stupid boy decided he was going to win her heart and so he did… she fell in love, her first love, and they were happy for a little while.
But then one day the stupid boy decided that the fair princess wasn't enough for him, so he went for her mother too… now the keyword here is too and not instead, because you see if he decided to go for another girl he should've first ended things with the princess-
"Sir with all due respect, if you have something to say to me regarding Rose please just say it, there's no need for fairy tales," the icy stare he fixed me with told me I had said the wrong thing.
"This," he slammed his hand on the desk leaving behind a picture of a very bruised and battered face, "is what," he did it again leaving another picture of the same battered face from a different angle, "Happened to," again, "the stupid boy," another "who broke my daughter's heart."
"Sir, I've no intentions of breaking her heart," the pictures were intimidating but they didn't scare me enough to give up.
"Good, she's my little girl, you do well to remember that," his whole demeanor had changed now and he was much more relaxed.
"I'll remember that Sir," I affirmed him.
"Now on to more pressing matters," he smiled and I couldn't help but get an image of my own funeral being planned in a room similar to this one. "Your fight has been scheduled for May second, will you be ready?"
"Yes Sir!" that gave me the whole of march and April to train.
"I don't like to lose Dimitri," but his tone had changed and death would be my destiny if I lost the fight.
"And neither do I Sir," I affirmed him as I got up from the chair.
"Good, I have to go now," he opened the door and exited the room without a backwards glance at me but I followed him out.
Now the site that met us halfway into the gym did frighten me a little.
Rose stood with both hands planted on her tiny waist as she glared daggers at her father. "What have you done old man?" she kept glaring, a quick look around told me I wasn't the only one who was relieved that this fury wasn't directed in any of our direction. She imposed power and strength that only made her all that more attractive to me.
"This is work dear," but his tone also left no room for argument, at least not here.
Rose's P.O.V
"Hey isn't that dimitri's hummer?" Mia asked pointing to the H3 parked two spots across from us.
"There are many H3s in the US Mia," Lisa chuckled.
"And how many of dad's fighters drive an H3?" Mia huffed as if Lisa had just called her dumb.
"Oh no, I told him to stay out of this," I saw red. That meddling old fool had no business sticking his nose on something I had specifically told him to stay out of, and before the girls even registered what happened I was out of the car and marching my way into the gym.
The first thing I saw when I walked inside, besides Christian and Eddie wrestling was Abe coming out of a room followed closely by a disheveled, though sexy as hell, Dimitri.
"What have you done old man?" the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
A/N: Let me know if you are still there and what your thoughts are on this… could use some help if anyone is up for the job of course due credit will be given.